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Helen Faucit
Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress. Early life Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a girl, and her mother went to live with William Farren in 1825.Carol J. Carlisle, 'Saville , John Faucit (1783?–1853)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200accessed 2 Nov 2015/ref> With her elder sister Harriet, she was trained for the stage by her step-uncle, Percy Farren. She debuted as Juliet at a small theatre in Richmond in 1833. Her performance was praised by critics of '' The Athenaeum'', but Farren delayed her professional debut to give her further training. Early career Faucit's first professional appearance was made on 5 January 1836 at Covent Garden as Julia in James Sheridan Knowles's ''The Hunchback''. Her debut, a spectacular success, placed her at once among the leading ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play was included in the ''First Folio'', published in 1623. The play is set in Messina and revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. The first, between Claudio and Hero, is nearly altered by the accusations of the villain, Don John. The second romance, between Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play goes on, with both characters' wit and banter providing much of the humour. Through "noting" (sounding like "nothing", and meaning gossip, rumour, overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into believing that Hero is not a maiden (virgin). The title's play on words references t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census of Ireland, 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kings of Dublin, Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antigone (Sophocles)
''Antigone'' ( ; grc, Ἀντιγόνη) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by ''Ajax'', which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following ''Oedipus Rex'' and ''Oedipus at Colonus''. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote ''Antigone'' first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' ''Seven Against Thebes'' ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone. After Oedipus' self-exile his sons Eteocles and Polynices engaged in a civil war for the Theban throne, which resulted in both brothers dying fighting each other. Oedipus' brother-in-law and new Theban ruler Creon ordered the public honor of Eteocles an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett
Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett (1812 – 15 January 1858), English actress, was the daughter of Frederick Hayes Macnamara, an actor, whose stage name was Mordaunt. As Miss Mordaunt she had considerable experience, especially in Shakespearean leading parts, before her first London appearance in 1829 at Drury Lane as Widow Cheerly in Andrew Cherry's '' The Soldier's Daughter''. Her beauty and high spirits made her at once a popular favourite in a large number of comedy parts, until in 1831 she was married to Captain John Alexander Nisbett and retired. Her husband, however, was killed the same year by a fall from his horse, and she was compelled to reappear on the stage in 1832. She was the original Lady Gay Spanker of ''London Assurance'' (1841). In 1844 she withdrew again from the stage to marry Sir William Boothby, Bart., but on his death (1846), returned to play many parts, including Lady Teazle, Portia, and three dramatic parts created by Knowles: Constantine in ''The Love Chase'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified". She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth, a character she made her own, as well as for fainting at the sight of the Elgin Marbles in London. The Sarah Siddons Society, founded in 1952, continues to present the Sarah Siddons Award annually in Chicago to a distinguished actress. Background The 18th-century marked the 'emergence of a recognisably modern celebrity culture' and Siddons was at the heart of it. Portraits depicted actresses in aristocratic dress, the recently industrialised newspapers spread actresses' names and images and gossip about their private lives spread through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Westland Marston
John Westland Marston (30 January 1819 – 5 January 1890) was an English dramatist and critic. Life He was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, on 30 January 1819, was son of the Rev. Stephen Marston, minister of a Baptist congregation. In 1834, he was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a London solicitor; but although he was not inattentive to the duties of the office after obtained a fair knowledge of law, literature and the theatre had much greater attractions for him. His evenings were devoted to the theatre and becoming acquainted with Heraud, Francis Barham, and other members of the group which gathered around James Pierrepont Greaves. He contributed to Heraud's magazine ''The Sunbeam,'' and himself became editor of a mystical periodical entitled ''The Psyche.'' Among its chief supporters were some wealthy ladies near Cheltenham, Through them he made the acquaintance of Eleanor Jane Potts, eldest daughter of the proprietor of ''Saunders's News-Letter,'' who had retired to Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desdemona (Othello)
Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian military prodigy. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing she is an adulteress, and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse. The role has attracted notable actresses through the centuries and has the distinction of being the first role performed professionally by Margaret Hughes, the first actress to appear on an English public stage. Sources ''Othello'' has its source in the 1565 tale "''Un Capitano Moro''" in ''Gli Hecatommithi,'' by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. While no English translation of Cinthio was available in print during Shakespeare's lifetime, it is possible that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Macbeth'' (). As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman), Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes queen of Scotland. After Macbeth becomes a murderous tyrant, she is driven to madness by guilt over their crimes, and commits suicide offstage. Lady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her sleepwalking scene in the fifth act is a turning point in the play, and her line "Out, damned spot!" has become a phrase familiar to many speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drury Lane. The building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre". For most of that time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres, granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" drama in London (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music). The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama (meaning spoken drama, as opposed to opera, concerts or plays with music) in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate. The Haymarket has been the site of a significant innovation in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Its managers have included Benjamin Nottingham Webster, John Baldwin Buckstone, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems ''Pauline'' (1833) and ''Paracelsus'' (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem ''Sordello'' was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846 he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861 he had published the collection ''Men and Women'' (1855). His ''Dramatis Personae'' (1864) and book-length epic poem ''The Ring and the Book'' (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889 he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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